We always enjoy the opportunity to have one good artist turn us on to another. When we spoke recently with John Doe, he mentioned that he'd been listening to an artist that he liked a lot named Rosie Thomas.

When we looked the lady up, we noticed that she was, indeed, managed by our friend Christopher Moon, who also handles Josh Rouse and Kyle Andrews for Nettwerk Mgt. So he set us up for a conversation that had the feel of two people who were already acquainted, to understate the matter. It ran so long, in fact, that I had to chop it up substantially if I expected anyone to read it in its entirety. (We already get some flak about how long our interviews are, but that's what makes them unique, and sometimes uniquely revealing. We've often heard comments like "I've known this artist personally for some time, and yet found out things in your interview I'd never known about them." So what's a little flak, but water off a duck's back.)

Rosie first hit the spotlight in the 90s with a band called Velour 100. When Sub Pop heard her sing on a Damien Jurado record, they signed her to a solo deal, which lasted three albums. This latest recording, These Friends Of Mine, began, alternately, as a non-record project with her friends Denison Witmer and Sufjan Stevens, in their respective pads; just getting together to make music for its own sake, and for fun.

Luckily, it did ultimately turn into a record that was picked up for distribution by Nettwerk. It's a lovely acoustic pop document of three severely talented friends doing it for all the right reasons. We're sure you'll want to pick it up once you've made the artist's acquaintance in the following conversation, and audition the clips on the Listen page.